_November 18_.--We landed in St. Louis after a long and toilsome journey of over two months. Here I remained, attending public meetings with the Saints; visiting, instructing, writing history, and writing for _The Mormon_, then published by Elder John Taylor in New York; visiting and preaching at several places in Missouri and Illinois, until the 16th of December, when I left St. Louis for New York--travelling by railroad. I stopped at Cincinnati, where I arrived at 4 A.M. on the 17th. Here I found some Saints, who took me and my baggage, and extended to me the hospitality of their homes. I remained in Cincinnati, preaching, conversing with the Saints and others, writing correspondence for _The Mormon_, history, etc., until the 22d, when I took leave of the Saints and started by railway for Philadelphia, where I arrived on the 24th--meeting there President John Taylor and other brethren, who kindly greeted me. Here I remained preaching, visiting, conversing, writing history, corresponding with _The Mormon_, etc., until the 31st, when I took the 10 A.M. train for New York, where I safely landed the same day--thus closing another year of my changeful, varied and eventful life. It leaves me among strangers, and yet in my own native state--a pilgrim and almost a stranger in the very city where, twenty years ago, I labored, toiled, prayed, preached, wrote and published the message of eternal truth. Oh, how darkness prevails! How ignorant, blind and impenetrable are the minds of men! My Father in Heaven, Thy will be done. As a blank of another year of my life is about to commence to be filled up, I will close the volume of the book I have been writing, commending myself to God and the guardianship of his angels; asking, in the name of Jesus Christ, that my sins and follies, up to this date, may be blotted out, and that my labors and records may be accepted; then I will retire to rest with a conscience void of offense, and with a calm and resigned confidence in my Heavenly Father. If I am privileged to awake in the morning of a new year, I will commence a new book or volume of my life. January 1st, 1857. Thank God for a new year and for the reservation of my life and health. Spent the day in visiting with President Taylor and others, and at 5 P.M. repaired to the Latter-day Saints' Hall, where I met with some four hundred persons, mostly members of the Church, in a public party.